Hendricks lost his chestnut three-year-old. Then there was a search and
a fuss until they found all that had been lost in the stable of the
new-comer, so we took him, I and some others, and we hung him up on a
tree, without ever thinking what a great man he had been."

De Catinat shot an angry glance at his companion. "Your parable, my
friend, is scarce polite," said he. "If you and I are to travel in
peace you must keep a closer guard upon your tongue."

"I would not give you offence, and it may be that I am wrong," answered
the American, "but I speak as the matter seems to me, and it is the
right of a free man to do that."

De Catinat's frown relaxed as the other turned his earnest blue eyes
upon him. "By my soul, where would the court be if every man did that?"
said he. "But what in the name of heaven is amiss now?"

His companion had hurled himself off his horse, and was stooping low
over the ground, with his eyes bent upon the dust. Then, with quick,
noiseless steps, he zigzagged along the road, ran swiftly across a
grassy bank, and stood peering at the gap of a fence, with his nostrils
dilated, his eyes shining, and his whole face aglow with eagerness.

"The fellow's brain is gone," muttered De Catinat, as he caught at the
bridle of the riderless horse. "The sight of Paris has shaken his wits.
What in the name of the devil ails you, that you should stand glaring
there?"

"A deer has passed," whispered the other, pointing down at the grass.
"Its trail lies along there and into the wood. It could not have been